Jack Bogle Speaks Truth To Power

I have great admiration and respect for Jack Bogle, the founder of the Vanguard Group. He seems to be one of the few “really big financial guys” that thinks the customer is important. I think he sees this from the point of view that it’s good for your business to treat your customer fairly. I think he also believes treating your customer fairly is the ethical thing to do. A rare bird, someone who is in the financial business for reasons other than just making lots of money for himself. If only there were more like him.

Here is an excerpt from the Nightly Business Report which was broadcast on Monday March 25, 2008:

SCOTT GURVEY: But not every investor is satisfied. Jack Bogle sees a double standard.

JACK BOGLE: It is to me remarkable that all these capitalists who say just keep the government out of the way and we'll do fine are the first ones in line when they're coming to search for help -- you know, go to the government whenever you get in trouble. And so I'm deeply troubled by the conflict between those two kind of polar positions.

SCOTT GURVEY: Bogle says it is time to revive the Glass-Steagall act of 1933, which separated commercial banks from investment banks. That law was repealed in 1999. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.

Susie Gharib And President Bush

I usually watch The Nightly Business Report on PBS every evening. On Wednesday Susie Gharib interviewed George W. Bush and asked him questions about the economy. In her lead-in to the interview Ms. Gharib said:

President Bush told Nightly Business Report today that he would like to see a stronger dollar. His comments came as the dollar hit a new low against the euro. It now takes $1.55 to buy one euro. The president said one way to stem the dollar's slide is to “send signals to the world that overseas money is welcome in the United States.”

I watched The Nightly Business Report on Thursday evening and was amused during Susie Gharib’s interview with Robert Hormats when she said:

That's what I wanted to ask you. Is there a point where the dollar is just too low because it's been on a steady decline for the last almost seven years?

We all know who has been the president for the last seven years, don’t we? If he has been sending “signals that overseas money is welcome in the United States” for the last seven years, it hasn’t been working. If he hasn’t been sending “signals that overseas money is welcome in the United States” for the last seven years, then why hasn’t he been? It has to be one or the other. Either way, it is just another sign of Bush’s gross incompetence, and another sign of journalists giving him an easy time and not calling him on the stupid things he says.

While I watched the interview on Wednesday it seemed like Bush was making some sense, at least some of the time. However, he did say something that seemed very strange. Here is the excerpt:

GHARIB: I'd like to talk to you a little bit about sovereign wealth funds.

BUSH: Sure.

GHARIB: You know, we're becoming more and more dependent on foreign capital and some of it is coming from these sovereign wealth funds. Do you think that they're making a positive contribution, especially in this current climate, or do you see risks that they're using money for a political agenda?

BUSH: Well, first of all, it's our money. And a lot of the time -- and therefore I think it makes sense for us to encourage them to reinvest in our country. Secondly, we have got policy in place to make sure that they don't reinvest in industry that have got significant national security concerns attached to them. And so my answer is, absolutely we ought to welcome the capital back. It makes no sense not to welcome the capital back.

GHARIB: But a lot of people are very worried that America is for sale.

BUSH: Right.

Does Bush have a functional brain? How can he possibly say that foreign money is “our money?” Am I missing something here? Why didn’t Susie Gharib call him on this point? Of course by answering her question in this way he is dismissing the whole point of the question. He gets away with stupid stuff like this because no one calls him out on it. Why the hell not? We in the United States have the most overpaid and lame reporters on earth.

Also, if it is really "our money" then why do we need "policy in place to make sure that they don't reinvest in industry that have got significant national security concerns attached to them?" This is one huge freakin' contradiction. How does Bush get away with this kind of thing? He does this kind of thing all the time and reporters usually give him a pass. Why?

I just want to point out that this is not meant to be an attack on Susie Gharib specifically, but the media in general. However, I do wish Ms. Gharib would have challenged some of Bush’s lame statements.